Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[hela]

Dear teachers,

Would you please tell me WHY we use a plural verb after "the majority"?

The majority ARE going to vote against him.
The great majority of incomes CONSIST of wages and salaries.

Best wishes,
Hela

[MrPedantic]

Hello Hela

In British English, with collective nouns, or nouns that suggest a group ("nouns of multitude"), you can use a singular verb where you wish to present the action as the action of the group as a whole, and a plural verb where you wish to present the action as the action of different members of the group.

Thus in your first example, "the majority" stands for "the majority of voters", and each voter has a separate vote.

Cf.

1. When the Majority is wrong, the Minority isn't necessarily right.

Here, the majority is presented as a group; so the verb is singular.

As I say, this is the usual BrE usage; from what I've seen on other threads on other forums, AmE speakers are often a little less happy about the plural verb!

MrP

[hela]

Thank you Mr Pedantic